I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Cambridge, MA) in May 2009
Interview
The first part of the interview process was a phone interview - mainly general questions about what interested me about programming why I wanted to work for Microsoft Startup Labs. Then was the technical interview with one of the engineers there. He asked me some verbal questions like "Is JavaScript object-oriented" then asked me to write some code on a white board - reverse a linked list, do some tree traversals, and something else. All pretty standard I guess.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write code to reverse a linked list in C++ or Java
The hiring process started with an online assessment that focused on problem-solving and coding skills.
After passing the assessment, I was invited to a series of 3 back-to-back technical interviews.
Each interview was primarily centered around data structures and algorithms, with questions similar in style and difficulty to LeetCode problems.
Interviewers also evaluated problem-solving approach, code quality, and the ability to explain thought processes clearly while coding.
Overall, the process was structured, technical, and heavily focused on algorithmic problem solving and communication skills.
I applied through college or university. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bengaluru) in Mar 2026
Interview
Interviewer was intrested in my Open source work for first 25 min where I told him about my GSoC work which was about decompression and asked a simple dsa question about trees. And asked follow ups like print it without storing it in a vector of vector.
2 45 min back to back with leetcode and behavioral questions. Wasn’t too bad just tagged will help and be prepared for resume grill. Review resume fully and should be ok
